Exactly. It's price differentiation based on 1) Brand, 2) *perceived* quality/performance, and 3) convenience. The difference in performance is so minimal is would be difficult to measure except for Jackmott's "special" race circumstances. For those that have lots of money to burn, there's no reason not to. Sort of like Bentleys. BTW, if you can't get a Flo, you're not trying. They're regularly available in the classifieds, for one thing.

If the wheel was in the real world with no supports your thesis would have some merit. In the real world the wheel is supported by fork blades and chain/seat stays. They are different than struts but are closer to struts than not having anything support the wheel is, probably.

All of this is to say maybe, but probably not, and unless you go do some testing you won't know for sure what is fastest for you.

Ultimately any kind testing is an exercise in trying to get the most valuable measurement for the least amount of money/time. Physically removing the struts would cost lots of money and time. Ideally you might have a foil shaped stinger come down from the ceiling and push down on the seat as scale model cars and airplanes do in tunnels. But that has it's own complicated issues regarding measuring the forces on the bike.

Fork blades don't have the same shape or angle compare to the support... but somehow it is impossible to say ;-) . Best would be to test all those great wheels on my bike... ahhhh not gonna happen ;-)

Your right, they don't have the same shape as the supports...but they don't have the same shape as nothing either.